Monday, 22 June 2015

An unregistered human con wizard and a duty-bound, straight-laced
elf cop. As New York explodes with dangerous creatures, their passion
goes nuclear.

After a terrible magical accident at Berkeley created unpredictable
holes between realities, all manner of non-human creatures started
popping into our world. These displacements, called Random Anomalous
Reality Events or RARE, have taken magic out of fiction and relocated it
firmly in reality, resulting in a great deal of chaos and confusion.
Displaced elf Valerian works with AURA, the Agency of Unnatural
Resettlement and Assimilation, to intercept these beings as they appear
in the human world, helping the peaceful ones and subduing the violent,
malevolent ones. It’s good, satisfying work, and Val would be happy if
he wasn’t so lonely.

Quinten is a young mage just trying to get by, but New York isn’t
the easiest city to make a living in. If his methods are sometimes
morally dubious, his heart is still in the right place. Of course, for
Quinn, the right place means firmly locked away, protected at all costs.
Living by his wits and sometimes magically induced luck, he works as a
‘freelance magic user’, or unregistered mage and small-time con,
according to the authorities. The last thing Quinn wants is to draw the
cops’ attention, but when an Event happens right on top of him, he’s
forced to turn to AURA for help. Valerian isn’t at all what he’d
expected in an AURA cop, and he certainly wasn’t expecting to join
forces with the sexy elf, a snarky drow and a bitter incubus, when
certain individuals in power try to stop the RARE by any means
necessary.

Things are not all what they seem at AURA headquarters, and a greater evil lurks at the top than anyone could have imagined.

My Review

I have
never read erotic fiction before, and have always been curious as to
what I had heard about the genre. The closest I got to any sort of
sexual scenes in books were either from Jackie Collins novels, or
romantic fiction that went 'there'.

However,
due to my sexual orientation the idea of heterosexual erotic fiction
has never appealed to me the same way heterosexual relationships
don't appeal to me. Also I guess you could say the somewhat altered perception of erotic fiction that '50 Shades of Grey' had offered to
the world, lessened my enthusiasm for the genre.

So when I
was contacted by the lovely Holly Gunner over at 'Totally Bound
Publishing', I wasn't really in all honesty too enthusiastic. Not
that I ever had anything against erotic fiction, it just didn't
appeal to me in the same way that crime novels don't appeal to me.
But I was curious, and I was longing to read books where the
relationships were focused on same sex pairings, specifically M/M.

So I
decided to give these books a go. The book I picked to read first was
'Quinn's Gambit' and as you can see from the blurb at the top of this
post had a heavy urban fantasy element which appealed to my love of
magical creatures and fantastical worlds. Our two main characters are
Quinn and Val, and I instantly adored them both. However, I must
admit that it was Val who got my heart pumping and I guess you could
say I fell for him in a literary lover kind of way. He's a dark,
brooding, and a very sexy elf cop who falls hard for Quinn.

Their
relationship was a difficult one to start off with, both being from
different worlds, and Val's lack of familiarity with many of the
human customs and phrases meant there was many a crossed wire. Even
the relationships between some of the secondary characters are written in such a wonderfully believable way, often displaying
characteristics that made me think of my own relationship with my
husband.

I was
pleased to find that this book was not just a string of ridiculous
sex scenes just for the sake of them. There is a wonderful story
here, and it had me gripped from page one. The sex scenes however,
are very well written and most certainly had me feeling a little hot
under the collar. These scenes aren't just about gratuitous sex,
there is a sensuality to these scenes and a strong connection between
our two sexy protagonists. The idea that trust was such a huge thing
for Quinn, added more realism to the book, as I feel that you really
need to trust someone to allow yourself to be intimate with them on a
higher level.

Everything
in this book was balanced and well written, from the sex scenes to
the action scenes and everything in between. Also, this is the first
book that I have managed to read in a day. It was that good folks.
For me it was an excellent introduction into the world of M/M erotic
fiction and for those that are looking to take the plunge, then this
book is a great start. I am looking forward to getting round to
reading the sequel.

The unlikely black sheep of an ivory tower intellectual family,
Angel Martinez has managed to make her way through life reasonably
unscathed. Despite a wildly misspent youth, she snagged a degree in
English Lit, married once and did it right the first time, (same husband
for almost twenty-four years) gave birth to one amazing son, (now in
college) and realized at some point that she could get paid for
writing.Published since 2006, Angel's cynical heart cloaks a desperate
romantic. You'll find drama and humor given equal weight in her writing
and don't expect sad endings. Life is sad enough.

Originally hailing from Detroit Michigan, Bellora now resides on the
sunny Gulf Coast of Florida where a herd of Dachshunds keeps her
entertained. She got her start in writing at the dawn of the internet
when she discovered PbEMs (Play by email) and found a passion for
collaborative writing and steamy hot erotica. Soap Opera like blogs soon
followed and eventually full novels.The majority of her stories are in
the M/M genre with urban fantasy or paranormal settings and many with a
strong BDSM flavour.